|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |  |
|
target Tagged Articles
|
Targeting – The Most Critical Tool for Growth during Tough Economic Times
| |
| Targeting is the process of selecting high potential customer accounts to receive intense sales focus. Goal setting translates that high potential into achievable numeric objectives, i.e. revenue and margin growth. Each Territory Manager should select a predetermined number of Target Growth Accounts (TGAs). Creating focus on this group of selected accounts doesn't mean a Territory Manager should ignore other accounts; he/she is always expected to service their entire territory. When making decisions regarding their time, however, they should always consider these selected Target Growth Accounts a priority. |
|
|
Master Your Game: A Consistent Swing
| |
| You've established your target, perfected your technical game, and enhanced your mental game. Time now to focus on a consistent swing in this final Enhancing Your Mental Game article.
Consistency in performance comes with discipline. Train yourself by focusing on:
• Supportive daily habits
• Consistent actions
• Follow through on commitments, and
• Results tracking.
Develop these to super-charge your game. Achieve your results faster with a lot more fun. |
|
|
The New Rules for Successfully Landing Media Coverage
| |
| One of the upsides of the net, social media and blogs, is that you can now learn so much about writers, editors and producers that you are pitching. You can learn their interests and study their writings. Now, when you pitch a story, you can have a much better take on whether your pitch is appropriate or off-base. Instead of sending out hundreds of emails and packages hoping that a few hit the right target, the savvy approach is to pick a small number of media contacts, do your research and make more focused, targeted pitches. |
|
|
Have Your Goals and Achieve Them Too!
| |
| You see it every day in your daily lives and particularly at year-end, with all of the New Year resolutions and business plans. Next year you are going to do all of those things you have never done, and more. Or maybe you just want to get back to where you used to be. You set goals for some really important reasons:
- Keep you on target
- Make better decisions
- Keep you focused
- Increase self-motivation
- Develop self-confidence |
|
|
Lessons in Customer Service for Target
| |
| A true story about the importance of customer service |
|
|
Top Value Brands (Part 1 of 2)
| |
| A recent study listed the "top value" brands. This three part series explores from a marketing perspective that which will help other businesses learn to be successful by delivering this notion of "value." |
|
|
Top Value Brands (Part 2 of 2)
| |
| The communication of value is where the real trick lies. After all, Target didn't get to be known for designer quality on a budget by getting lucky or stumbling upon something that worked. Effective communication of value is a product of three things: positioning, implicit communication and audience touch points. |
|
|
At Target Everyday is Earth Day
| |
| Some environmentalists have criticized Earth Day as a one day event, but companies like Target are making Earth Day everyday. Target is reducing their environmental impact through a multitude of sustainable practices. Target is amongst a growing number of businesses that are marrying their profit motive to environmental responsibility. |
|
|
Lesson #3: Management Means To Inspire Creativity
| |
| “From a management standpoint, it is very important to know how to unleash people's inborn creativity,” said Morita. “My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it.” Morita created one of the world’s largest multinational corporations but he did not do it alone. Indeed, over his fifty-year career, Morita became one of the most outspoken businessmen for sound management principles, of which his were largely based on Japanese traditions. |
|
|
The House of Armani: The Early Years of the Fashion King
| |
| At 73 years old, he is still busy making people look good. Giorgio Armani is one of the preeminent Italian fashion designers in the world, still going strong after 33 years in the industry. Known for his classically tailored, sleek power suits and clean, high quality fabrics, everyone from the who’s who of Hollywood to the bankers on Wall Street have fallen in love with the Armani brand. Now, with over $1.5 billion in revenue and a retail empire that extends to more than 35 countries, Armani himself continues to maintain full control over his business. However, it has been a long, uphill journey for the designer to get where he is today. |
|
|
Lesson #5: Keep It Simple To Start
| |
| “Success is never an overnight proposition,” says Vernon. “You must commit to long-term goals and tackle problems head-on.” |
|
|
Refining Success: Standard Oil Takes Shape
| |
| By the time Standard Oil was in business, Cleveland had become one of the five major refining centres in the country. By getting secret rebates from the railroads and supporting a new cartel aimed at stabilizing freight railroad rates in return for preferential treatment, Rockefeller was able to give his company an edge. |
|
|
Lesson #2: Never Stop Putting Up A Fight
| |
| “I was very committed to the people that had signed on with me and if we were going to go down, we were going to go down with a fight,” says Smith. “It wasn't going to be because I checked out and didn't finish it out.” |
|
|
Calvin Klein 2006
| |
| As one of the most popular and successful brands in American fashion, Calvin Klein Ltd. has witnessed continued growth since its initial launch in 1968. In addition to clothing, the line extends to include perfumes, watches and jewelry. And, while the brand has been at the forefront of adolescent fashion trends, the CK target demographic is a wide one. “I want everyone I can get,” jokes Klein. “Jews, Catholics, gays, straights, you name it!” However, for the public face behind the company, Calvin Klein, 2006 has been one of the most important years in the expansion of his growing empire. |
|
|
Lesson #1: Be Clear About Who Your Company Caters To
| |
| “We started the company around the time that a lot of other social networking companies were starting up,” recalls DeWolfe. “But we saw that a lot of those companies had a very niche focus. We set out to create this next generation portal where we looked at the best social features around.” |
|
|
Lesson #1: Succeed Through Innovation Not Exploitation
| |
| American Apparel is about much more than clothes or at least Charney hopes so. In creating the company of his dreams, Charney wanted to make sure that it stood for something, that it was selling a message along with its products. That message is that a company does not have to be exploitive in order to turn a profit. |
|
|
Dov Charney Quotes
| |
| Dov Charney Quotes |
|
|
Lesson #2: There Is Nothing Wrong With Being Cheap
| |
| He knows it and he’s proud of it: Robert Johnson is cheap. He did not get to where he is today by being careless with his money or by taking expensive chances. He got to the top by spending less than his competitors, by being frugal with his money, and by focusing on the bottom line. |
|
|
Guerrilla Tweaking
| |
| Usually, the best and most successful marketing is not created right off the bat. Instead, it’s the product of improving with minor but crucial changes in details. |
|
|
The Top Ten Lies of Corporate Partners
| |
| In a manner of speaking, I’m running out of lies to tell. So far I’ve taken care of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, and marketers. The target of this posting is “corporate partners.” (You might find a previous posting, "The Art of Partnering" interesting.) |
|
|
The No-Time Networking Plan
| |
| Now that we're past the seasonal rush that seems to make our schedules so crazy from late November to New Year's Day, we should have plenty of time to act on our resolutions to "develop more meaningful relationships" in the new year, right? In our dreams. We're still as busy as ever. |
|
|
The Value of Change
| |
| Marketing people can be divided into two categories: those who resist change and those who welcome change. Guerrillas are in the second category. They not only welcome change, but they also are ready for change and respond to change. |
|
|
Hitting The Bull's Eye
| |
| Somebody once said the difference between a big shot and little shot is that the big shot was the little shot who kept on shooting. There's much truth in that witticism. The reality is, no matter what our target might be, we seldom hit it on the first try unless the target is low, which means the accomplishment--and the rewards--will be insignificant. |
|
|
Crazy Dad Stories
| |
| Entrepreneurship requires serious determination. So does life. My friend Andy’s story of his dad’s fractured back reminded me of my favorite story about my dad’s dad. |
|
|
Guerrilla Planning
| |
| The first thing to know is that guerrillas plan backwards, beginning with
the attainment of their loftiest goals in the future, then working back
to the present. If you can allow yourself to visualize success, the path
to it will be easier to find. Most companies see the beginning of the
path in front of them, but don't see where it leads in the distance.
Their short-sightedness gets them in trouble when change or unforeseen
circumstances occur. It even impairs their ability to function when
confronted with success. |
|
|
What Are You Afraid Of?
| |
| Fear is the most basic of human elements and plays a major role in business success and failure. |
|
|
On the Attack!
| |
| At an Inc. magazine forum last week, I found myself on the attack. The target? Me. I was engaging in a moderated dialogue with Seth Godin—not only do I have the utmost respect for him, but we are in agreement a frightening percentage of the time. It seems at times that we use the same adjectives and adverbs to make the same points. Hence, the surprise at some areas of disagreement. |
|
|
Three Steps to Getting Your Goals Back on Target
| |
| We're more than a month into 2009. Is anyone experiencing goal drift? Here are three steps to get yourself refocused and enlist your network to help you. |
|
|
Hostages, Revolutions and Critics
| |
| Most uprisings and revolutions find their beginnings in injustice. The French and American revolutions are two examples, and we can trace this back to Greek history. Democracy started there. The people had a justified outrage and managed to change things. |
|
|
Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job
| |
| Searching for a job can suck if you constrain yourself to the typical tools such as online jobs boards, trade publications, CraigsList, and networking with only your close friends. In these kinds of times, you need to use all the weapons that you can, and one that many people don’t—or at least don’t use to the fullest extent, is LinkedIn. |
|
|
4 Steps to Increase The Power of Your Focus
| |
| Living your life without practicing The Power of Focus, is like trying to hit the bull's eye of a target you can't see. You can spend hours launching arrows, only to miss the target entirely. You become exhausted and frustrated when your repeated efforts don't show the results you are trying to achieve. This is what it feels like to operate without The Power of Focus. Here are 4 steps to help you increase the power of your focus.
|
|
|
Who is your customer?
| |
| Marketing is not about chasing any customer at any given price. You have to decide which groups of customers (called segments) are most attractive to the business and are most likely to boost profits. |
|
|
LIFT VS. DRAG - A Business Leader's Perspective
| |
| LIFT VS. DRAG - A Business Leader's Perspective - If you reach new heights in business and want in life, so make sure you lift it to whatever your maximum and minimum drag takes. Not only will you avoid the missiles, but you will hit your target as well!
|
|
|
How Can Anyone Spend That Much Time on Sales Coaching?
| |
| If you aren't the low price leader or one of the two or three best-known brands in your industry, and if buying from you does NOT represent the safe choice for your customers, then you are an underdog. And if you are an underdog, you had better be providing comprehensive sales and sales management training and coaching because you can't compete on price or reputation. |
|
|
The Search for Perfection - How it Can Ruin Your Sales Efforts
| |
| Sometimes perfection is good but sometimes there is a strange dark side. First the good and then, in the fifth paragraph, I'll share the frightening dark side with you. |
|
|
Do Salespeople Have to Give up Control to Their Prospects?
| |
| I just read Why Won't Anyone Return My !*#@$% Call by Don Fornes over at Software Advice. Don's read of the current selling environment, specifically cold-calling, entry point into the sales process, and the table stakes just to play are dead-on. Most of his conclusions are good as well.
I disagree with his article when he implies that we should be resigned to the fact that there isn't much to be done except building trust until the prospect is ready to engage.
|
|
|
Stop a Sales Slump in its Tracks
| |
| I know a few salespeople who are in the middle of some incredible sales slumps. They are suddenly not finding new opportunities, having trouble moving existing opportunities in their pipeline, not getting the opportunities that are closable, closed, and starting to feel down about the whole turn of events. Where to start! |
|
|
Preparing for Sales Training - Becoming Change Ready
| |
| I just took a talented group of salespeople through three days of training. Perhaps you've been in a situation just like that at some point. There are several ways this group can approach integration, application and execution at the end of the training. |
|
|
How Obama, Dan Pink, The Heaths, Steinbrenner and Kurlan Might Prepare Your Sales Force for Change
| |
| I was up against the time, as 6:30 AM had arrived prior to the end of my article. That's how it was yesterday when I wrote about having a change ready sales force. The only problem with yesterday's article was that I never really got to the part about being change ready! So to start where we left off you'll need to read Part I first.
How do we prepare the sales force for the four possible outcomes while letting them know that options 2-4 are not acceptable?
There are several possible approaches and Alex Bartholomaus, who spoke with me yesterday, said he would like to see me talk about these two:
|
|
|
The Single Biggest Mistake That Salespeople Make
| |
| Ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title - "What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?", with the key word being mistake - something they do incorrectly rather than due to a weakness - and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are nearly always made but 2 of them happen as a result of the single biggest mistake. |
|
|
The Relationship Between the Relationship and the Sales Outcome Part 2
| |
| Have you ever worked with salespeople that were so bad you thought, "She couldn't close a door!"? And have you ever worked with salespeople that were so good that you thought, "She could sell white to rice!"? |
|
|
New Tools Make it Easier to Book Sales Meetings
| |
| Tools are becoming a more important part of the sales infrastructure and there is no shortage of them. With so many sales tools available and such a big percentage of them being new, how do you know which ones to use and whether they are any good?
Today I'll share two tools with you. One is brand new - the launch is today - and the other is fairly new - I found it a month ago. Both tools will help you get into new opportunities more quickly, more easily and with more fun!
|
|
|
Separating Personal and Business in Social Media
| |
| How do you keep business and personal separate in social media? A recent panel discussion on social media for SugarCRM observed that whether used for business or personal, as a salesperson or an employee, remember that it's there forever so be careful, professional and aware.
A more advanced way to keep them separate is to go in with a plan and share it with all company participants. Give them the tools and guidance needed to be successful in this new arena. |
|
|
Sales Longevity - Free Webinar Available Here
| |
| I hosted a Webinar to introduce Objective Management Group's (OMG) newest innovation, The Sales Longevity Finding. In a nutshell, Sales Longevity is the likelihood of being able to retain a particular sales candidate through ramp-up, break-even, and 5X ROI. The attendees thought it was VERY cool! You can view the recorded Webinar here. |
|
|
Salespeople Become More Effective Part 2
| |
| You must talk about Sales Process and, assuming it's been formally developed, structured, optimized and introduced, include it in every daily coaching and development call so that the backdrop for your conversations is "Where in the process are you?" In Baseline Selling, that would sound like "Which Base are you on?" |
|
|
Sales Recruiting - How Long Can You Retain The New Salesperson?
| |
| Back in April, I posted an article that was actually my third in a series on Sales Longevity - the science of predicting sales turnover. In that article I provided a link to my latest White Paper on the subject and suggested that this new science would someday become a new feature in our already cutting edge Sales Candidate Assessments. Well, that day is upon us. |
|
|
10 Attributes of the CEO Who Drives Sales and More
| |
| My second conversation was with an effective CEO who is completely unlike those that I described in the other article. My good CEO has the following 10 qualities that have a positive impact on the sales force: |
|
|
Recruiting Strong Salespeople - The Sales Candidate Pipeline
| |
| Recruiting Salespeople - again?
Yes. I cannot write enough about this!
But, as usual, I'll address recruiting from a slightly different perspective this time - the candidate pipeline. Not to be confused with the candidate pool which is simply a single component of the pipeline.
Your sales pipeline should have four stages:
|
|
|
Case History - Sneak Preview of a Candidate
| |
| It never ceases to amaze me when clients receive nasty-grams from sales candidates who are - let's call it put-off - by the client's request that they first take our on-line assessment. The candidates receive a very nice email thanking them for sending their resume, explaining the client's recruiting process and asking them to take the assessment. You just wouldn't believe some of the notes I've seen. Name calling, cussing, threats, sarcasm, and more. Here's a typical sample: |
|
|
Rejection Proof - The Science Behind Success in Sales
| |
| The stronger a salesperson is, the less likely rejection is to have a major effect. That said, there are effective salespeople who have a rejection problem but they manage it better than their less effective colleagues. There are also some very ineffective salespeople who don't care about being rejected. In fact, their lack of caring about it may even lead to their ineffectiveness since their strategy rarely includes consideration of how to avoid resistance! |
|
|
Top 5 Sales Recruiting Observations of 2010
| |
| Today, I'll make some observations about the sales recruiting activity taking place this summer that either reinforces some of the things I've said in the past, or modifies my original stance.
In no particular order, but of equal importance:
|
|
|
Sales Just Can't Be This Easy - Can It?
| |
| Touch or no touch, you can't take short-cuts. Even if touch does have a positive effect, I would never consider making it part of a sales process as in, complete step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4, touch, close. No way! |
|
|
This One Tip Helps Salespeople Close More Business
| |
| Make your solution ideal, both in terms of it being needs and cost appropriate, with no options, and if you did what you were supposed to do throughout the sales process you will make it easy for your prospect to make a quick decision. |
|
|
Compelling Reasons for Your Salespeopole to Go Mobile
| |
| Good Sales Managers know how important it is for their salespeople to uncover needs.
But it goes way beyond needs.
As I detail in Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball, it requires that your salespeople learn about their prospects' compelling reasons to buy. Not just their needs. The issues, problems and frustrations - and even the consequences - that would cause them to spend money and spend it with your company, instead of your competitor.
But it goes well beyond compelling reasons.
|
|
|
10 Reasons Why Sales Commitment Has Become More Important
| |
| A comparison of selling today with selling over the past 20 years shows that selling is significantly more challenging today than ever before. Let's take a look at 10 of the factors that explain this shift in difficulty: |
|
|
With Blown Call, Jim Joyce Succeeds at a Sales Core Competency
| |
| The certain perfect game is just like the sure things that your salespeople report. "We're gonna get this business - it's a slam dunk." Or, "Everything has been agreed to - just waiting for final approval." Or, "We're the only ones they're talking to - it's ours for the taking!" And then...it isn't. |
|
|
But I'm a Sales Guy - The Story of Motivation and Compensation
| |
| A Sales VP and his CEO were in the conference room and each time the CEO brought up a problem, we asked the Sales VP to elaborate. Each time he began with, "Well I'm a sales guy so I know this stuff..."
Yes and No.
|
|
|
Giving Constructive Criticism
| |
| It’s a fact of life we can’t avoid. Whether it’s working in a professional environment, learning in the educational realm, or interacting with friends or family, at some point in time we all have to face criticism. How we may perceive that criticism depends on whether we are on the giving or receiving end. When done right, constructive criticism is not meant to hurt or humiliate a person. Rather, constructive criticism is meant to build a person and push them to reach the next level of success. Learning how to give constructive criticism makes a difference in regards to how others view an individual and also how he or she demonstrates leadership. This issue of Astronology takes a deeper look into how to give constructive criticism in the workplace. |
|
|
10 Tips for Hiring Salespeople for Your Company
| |
| This is a perfect time to be hiring - the economy is quickly turning around - heading into an upswing - and you must have excellent salespeople to find opportunities and get them closed by outselling your competitors. |
|
|
Are You Looking for Salespeople with Entrepreneurial Spirit?
| |
| While most salespeople don't have Entrepreneurial Passion, most Entrepreneurs aren't very good salespeople. They lack the DNA, skills and competencies necessary to consistently outsell their competitors, but they (sometimes) compensate for it with their 24/7 passion. Can you have both? Yes - entrepreneurs can be trained to sell effectively! And there are some salespeople who actually have this love of what they are selling. The key is to be able to successfully attract, identify, on board and retain those rare salespeople. |
|
|
The Role of Preparation in Developing Top Salespeople
| |
| The Internet has made it easier than ever for prospects to find your company, a benefit of Sales 2.0. The upside is that your leads are coming from unexpected places and you are getting audiences with prospects you may not have found ten years ago. The downside is that this has changed the sales process, accelerated the sales cycle and in some cases, made it more difficult than ever for companies to close these new found opportunities. |
|
|
Xobni as Sales Assistant, Pivots Help Close Sales
| |
| How to use Pivots to change the direction of a sales call or business strategy. |
|
|
Lousy Salespeople and Great Salespeople - Line Item or Investment?
| |
| Lousy salespeople are a line item but great salespeople are an investment. It's actually much worse than that. The line item on your lousy salespeople is only a fraction of what they really cost. Don't believe me? Then answer these three questions: |
|
|
How Do Companies Retain Their Under Performing Salespeople?
| |
| Yesterday, while reviewing the findings and answers from a Sales Force Evaluation with a client, the conversation turned to the possibility of replacing some of their reps. As we began to talk about the 5 factors, they wondered how they were able to retain these people who, for the most part, weren't very good and weren't a very good fit for the roles they were in. Three of the factors came up big in explaining why the tenure of their 9 salespeople: |
|
|
New Consumer, New Tools Equals New Normal
| |
| The 2010 holiday season is proving that the new consumer is in the house. He/she is more empowered than ever. They have a new set of tools, know how to use them and ...they are! The same old way of talking to, pushing product to the consumer is just that -- OLD! Consumers know you can track their activities. They don't mind as long as they get something in return. More importantly they know how to track you. They know almost immediately when they get the product, the service, the support they want/expect. Don't deliver, there is **** to pay! But that's OK because you're also a consumer.
Now's the time to change the way we think about, work with consumers... |
|
|
Call Reluctance - Causes, Factors and Predictors
| |
| Historically, when salespeople have failed, has most often been because of their inability to get appointments. We are able to identify the three factors that indicate a call-reluctance problem - a malady that is career-threatening for salespeople who are expected to hunt. |
|
|
Achieve Sales Leadership Mastery and Grow Sales Revenue
| |
| You'll come away with every tool, system, process, strategy, tactic and metric you'll need to bring your sales force to the next level. And you'll work your bottom off while we're together. |
|
|
3 Sales Approaches of Elite Salespeople
| |
| Great salespeople must be able to easily use all three approaches on their sales calls. Salespeople that struggle tend to have just one approach and it won't work all the time. |
|
|
Latest Sales Recruiting Breakthrough - Download the New White Paper
| |
| We are hearing loud and clear that companies are ready and willing to hire salespeople again BUT - they don't want to make any more mistakes. If you hire a great salesperson but you can't retain your A Player, on paper, it's just one more hiring mistake. |
|
|
Effect of Optimism and Commitment on the Sales Force
| |
| I'm not an optimist or a pessimist. I tend to be a be a realist. Relating the aforementioned quotes to selling, I believe that optimists find it difficult to challenge people. I can easily slide over to the pessimistic side when necessary, like when it's time to debrief a salesperson on a recent call. It's difficult to punch holes or question a salesperson's account of a call if you are an optimist. Optimists often become overexcited and set unrealistic expectations about the likely outcome of an opportunity. I believe you must be able to slide back and forth between optimism and pessimism. Get yourself motivated and excited, be realistic about what's happening, and challenge people when what you hear doesn't sound right. |
|
|
If Your Salespeople Can't Prospect They Will be Marginalized
| |
| That's according to Ken Edmundson, my guest on yesterday's edition of Meet the Sales Experts.
He said that business as we see it today is the new normal and that for most companies, taking business away from the competition is the only avenue for rebuilding sales and growth. |
|
|
What Happens When Salespeople Don't Meet Expectations?
| |
| The game and the news are quickly forgotten and don't impact your life unless you bet on the outcome of the game or happen to be the leading story on the news. When your salespeople focus too much of their time and resources on a large opportunity and it doesn't materialize, you can lose 6-12 months of productivity from them. Not only that, your forecasts fall short, your budget goes to hell, and you could have a frustrated, demotivated salesperson on your hands. The worst part is if you have a long sales cycle, say 8-12 months, and the salesperson devoted most of his time and energy to this opportunity for 8-12 months, it will take an additional 8-12 months before the pipeline will produce new, meaningful revenue. |
|
|
Can We Really Get Salespeople to Change?
| |
| People change when they are ready to change. How can you short circuit that time line? |
|
|
My Sales Force Won't Use CRM
| |
| I mentioned that the key rule to getting salespeople to change is rule #9, Consequences.
There are three primary ingredients to having Consequences. |
|
|
Secrets of Effective Sales Development
| |
| So when your salespeople tell you they've heard it before they are totally missing the point of sales development. They've heard it but they weren't listening. |
|
|
Baseball's General Managers versus Business' Sales Managers
| |
| You have one huge advantage over baseball General Managers though. Forward looking indicators. Except for observation, all of the statistics they use in baseball are lagging indicators. |
|
|
The Effect of Commitment and Optimism on the Sales Force
| |
| There are some noteworthy quotes which, although written in the context of innovation, apply equally, if not even more to selling and sales management. |
|
|
Sales Coaching - Are Sales Managers Any Good at This Function?
| |
| I've written extensively about sales coaching before. Yesterday, a fairly typical day, I coached 4 different sales experts and 2 clients on how to more effectively coach salespeople and sales managers. I have noticed that most sales managers believe that they're fairly good at coaching when, in reality, most of them are very ineffective at it. Why? |
|
|
The Science of Selling - Rules versus Data
| |
| Regular readers know that I like to talk about the science of selling. I don't mean the science of the sales process, strategy and tactics, as much as the science of research, data and proof. There is a science to selling but a more appropriate name for it would be the rules of selling. In Baseball, the rules dictate what you do, when you do it and how it should be done. In Selling, the rules accomplish the same thing. |
|
|
Salesperson ROI - How Long Must They Stick to Pay Off? Part 1
| |
| Is there a connection between sales success and tenure? Is it really a given that a successful salesperson will stick around longer than an unsuccessful salesperson? |
|
|
The Top 5 Factors That Predict Sales Turnover
| |
| Our data shows that only 16% of the A players with experience stick for more than two years. And that brings us back to the original question.
What do you think - A's or Longevity? Should the answer be a direct relation to the length of your sales cycle? Should you go for longevity when you have a long sales cycle and for A's when you have a short sales cycle? We're interested in what you have to say!
|
|
|
Now How Can You Motivate Your Salespeople?
| |
| If you can't motivate your B and C players in the most challenging times by having them set goals so that they can earn more money, then how can you motivate them? |
|
|
8 Question Sales Quiz - Malpractice?
| |
| First, there aren't 8 questions in the world where the answers would allow us to make that determination. Even if we tried, we couldn't identify even 15 of our 100+ questions that would allow us to answer that question accurately! But I was curious and clicked on through. 8 Questions and if you get 3 strikes or wrong answers, you're out and shouldn't be in sales. This free test shouldn't even be available for entertainment purposes! |
|
|
Kindle - Lessons Applied to the Sales Force
| |
| Readers who have purchased the Kindle have totally embraced that device. Some think it's the Kindle, not online sellers, that is the biggest threat to brick and mortar book stores. Read on for the lesson... |
|
|
The Pros and Cons of Hiring Green Salespeople
| |
| Well, there had to be an article about going green at some point and since I was asked to write one for the folks at AlisterPaine.com, you can get my version of going green, along with both the pros and cons of this practice.
It's interesting that so many mainstream companies, when they get frustrated with hiring experienced salespeople, ask what would happen if they were to target inexperienced salespeople. The issue is not that hiring experienced salespeople doesn't work. The problem is that they probably aren't going about it the right way.
Read my thoughts on The Pros and Cons of Hiring Green Salespeople. |
|
|
How Does the Salesperson Affect Price Shoppers and Negotiators?
| |
| When salespeople have a discussion about money, price shoppers usually make it very clear what their intentions are. On the other hand, negotiators don't usually advertise their intentions in advance. Instead, they'll negotiate after they have received a proposal. |
|
|
The Sales Assessment that Dave Kurlan Developed
| |
| If you have a complex technical product with a long sales cycle, would you want to use the same hiring and selection criteria used to hire life insurance salespeople who call on married couples? |
|
|
6 Steps to Sales Mastery
| |
| Salespeople must evolve through six levels of development before they can consistently and successfully execute any process, concept, strategy or tactic they are trained and coached to perform. The six levels are: |
|
|
The Difference Between Consultative Selling and Consultants
| |
| It's not new, it's been around since the 1960's, but it has since been formalized, complicated, examined, defined, refined, simplified and criticized. |
|
|
Sales and Selling - Which Has Evolved More?
| |
| What I found amazed me and will surely amaze you. Ready? Salespeople have not changed in any way since the recession. The statistics are identical with one exception - the percentage of salespeople who are hitting their numbers has declined significantly. However, the skill sets have not improved despite the need for them to. And the weaknesses are just as plentiful as they were, despite the need for them to be overcome. |
|
|
18 Business Trends for Your Sales Force
| |
| My guests were Mark Berezow, Gary Harvey and Rocky LaGrone. Before they handled one caller's sales force challenges (excellent stuff) , they commented on the state of business out there right now.
They see:
|
|
|
What Makes You Think You Have a Sales or Recruiting Process?
| |
| Whether it's a recruiting process or a sales process, it should always include a combination of best practices, milestones, steps and stages conducted in the proper sequence, with the proper expectations, in an appropriate time frame. |
|
|
3 Powerful Excuses for Maintaining Mediocrity in Your Sales Hiring Process
| |
| When I answered questions from the audience, the best one, in my opinion, was the most obvious. It went something like this:
"If your recruiting process works so effectively, and your assessments are so predictive, and they save so much time and money and consistently identify top performers, then why don't more companies use them?"
|
|
|
The Importance of Pride, Self Esteem and Confidence in Selling
| |
| My guest on this week's edition of Meet the Sales Experts was Bob Sinton and we talked a lot about the importance of pride, business self-esteem and two levels of confidence: |
|
|
The Ignorance Factor and Achieving Your Company's Revenue Goals
| |
| What do the 12 sales consultants and trainers and 4 new clients have in common with Michael Oher?
They are ignorant too. Not about life or business as Oher was, but about sales forces.
|
|
|
The Difference Between Selling to Negotiators and Selling to Price Shoppers
| |
| Selling successfully to both the negotiator and the price shopper takes good strategy, effective tactics, and timing - you must know when to employ them. |
|
|
Second Best also Deserves a Chance
| |
| Are you missing some of the crucial people in your business. Just because they aren't your stars it doesn't mean you don't need them! |
|
|
Sales Leadership - It's Not About the Title
| |
| We ended up spending much of the show talking about Sales Leadership and the three most predominant types we see: |
|
|
Born to Sell? Give me a Break
| |
| We all have opinions. We all prefer one style over another. We all have what we believe are better methodologies, strategies and tactics. But there are some topics that are just begging for data - not opinion - and the author I seem to target more than any other just wrote one such article on whether great sales pros are born that way. All opinion. But based on what? He doesn't really say. He simply uses his two kids as comparison. The problem is, he is dead wrong and the data says so. |
|
|
Is the framework for an Avro Arrow type demise of the Natural Health Products industry in Canada being laid by Bill C-6?
| |
| As part of the series on Natural Health Care products and the Bill C-6 controversy, today’s post delves a little deeper into the key elements of the growing debate. (Note: Why is this important to the world of purchasing and supply chains? When the Avro Arrow program was canceled on February 20th, 1959, it immediately put "14,528 Avro employees out of work, as well as nearly 15,000 other employees in the Avro "supply chain" of outside suppliers.") |
|
|
Don't be a Scrooge. Charitable giving is critical to your community and business
| |
| For the business owner, charitable giving can be a challenging subject in business planning. How much to give? Who to give to? Can we give each year even if our company isn't doing as well as before due to the recessionary economic environment? Many questions have to be resolved. But making a commitment to annual charitable donations and involvement and standing by it -- for your community and your employees -- can be immensely rewarding. |
|
|
How to reform from MLM lead stalker to Professional Attraction Marketer
| |
| I want to tell you a true story about my former MLM life. I am a reformed MLM lead stalker. I have to admit, it didn't last more than a year. I absolutely hated it. The truth is, it just wasn't me. After doing some research, like you, I stumbled onto new information about how I could generate my own leads, and have the internet work for me 24/7. This system was like a gold mine, and I haven't looked back.
|
|
|
2nd of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
| |
| This is the 2nd in the series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.
#1 - ACCOUNTABILITY
In its simplest form, sales accountability consists of the following:
* Holding salespeople accountable to something measurable - metrics - on a daily basis
* Being more demanding - being firmer and tougher
* Eliminating Excuse Making - people take responsibility for their results
More... |
|
|
5th of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
| |
| This is the 5th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.
#5 - DEVELOPMENT
Development is the ongoing development of your salespeople. It includes - and goes beyond: |
|
|
7th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
| |
| There isn't a person in the company who must work more on developing relationships than an individual in a sales management role, whether it be a line level sales manager or the World Wide VP of Sales. But developing a relationship does not mean that one should become friends. |
|
|
8th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
| |
| Systems and processes are your sales infrastructure - everything that is not your people. A lot of us use the two words interchangeably. So what is the difference between systems and processes? |
|
|
Black Friday – Shop at Wal-Mart and Best Buy or Invest?
| |
| Consumers are out in full force today, on ‘Black Friday', looking for great deals at retail stores. Stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy - all opening at the earliest hours of the morning to get accommodate us eager shoppers. The question for me today was - could the money I might spend today on Black Friday be put to a better use for me and my family's future by investing in something of real intrinsic value, instead of just another consumer item? |
|
|
Work From Home Online Blogging For Money
| |
| As you can see blogging for money is a great way to earn an online income from home- and saves on gas! |
|
|
Does Your Team have the Right Sales Plan?
| |
| Salesplans |
|
|
Ready, Fire, Aim
| |
| We're so busy doing, we don't know when we're done. |
|
|
Return on Investment in Coaching: “But Will It Make Us More Money?”
| |
| Coaching is now widely recognised as a means of increasing employee motivation, retention and engagement, and that these will contribute to bigger profits or (in the case of state organisations) better budget management. But it is a fact that many L&D executives and suppliers have to find ways of justifying the spend in terms of concrete results. Corporate culture expert Carol Wilson looks at methods and tools for measuring the return on coaching programmes from the beginning to the end of the project, and
tying that return into hard figures. |
|
|
5Linx Scam And The Facts About It
| |
| There's something anyone who is looking at an MLM business opportunity should understand about the word scam and 5Linx scam is no different. |
|
|
How To Thrive In Your 5Linx Business Without Really Trying
| |
| If you are considering a 5Linx business or are already a distributor then you'll want to read this article to learn about some key training that is not being taught at 5Linx. This is the difference between those who are succeeding in MLMs and those who are not. |
|
|
A Small Business Review: The Pros & Cons of 5Linx
| |
| Whether you are considering a 5Linx business opportunity or are already a distributor, this article is for you! It details the opportunity, pros and cons of this business opportunity |
|
|
Cold calling on a small business
| |
| Cold calling - in person that is - on a small business can quite often provoke a hostile response. You are invading their domain. How can we break down the barriers that sometimes are put up? |
|
|
7 Quick Read Tips for More Sales
| |
| Learn to think outside the in-box, persuade like a master with a few changes in how you say things and a lot more. The final tip trumps any other you'll ever get. |
|
|
Marketing to get results!
| |
| Many businesses just knock any type of ad or marketing campaign together not really knowing if it will work! |
|
|
Pay per Click Fraud
| |
| The fraud that is exercised each and every day on the internet. |
|
|
Do You Make These Stupid Mistakes For Your Web Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
| |
| If you are doing these stupid search engine web marketing mistakes, then it may be one of the reasons why you are broke and frustrated trying to leave this business! You must do an EDUCATED web search engine optimization all the time. Period! |
|
|
How can I improve that first cold contact with a potential client?
| |
| Cold-calling is as much about process, support and leverage as it is about dealing with rejection and maintaining enthusiasm. You have to work to a structured plan and initiative contact as you would a warm referral, i.e. I know who you and your competitors are - and the reason for my call is to help you, just like I have helped others in your space. |
|
|
Celebrate The Small Stuff
| |
| Find out in this article why every step you make in your journey towards your goal is as important as your desired outcome. It’s time to celebrate – starting today! |
|
|
Show me the money!
| |
| Every entrepreneur starts out with an idea and some skills to bring it to life but most are lacking money to build their dream business. People creating a startup often jump to venture capital as the "go to" source of funding - that isn't always viable or the best course of action for your particular business. This article explores various options for funding your company especially in the current environment where investors are hard to find. |
|
|
Engineering a “Muse”: Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses
| |
| This post has been in the works for a while.
One common challenge for readers of The 4-Hour Workweek is the creation of a “muse”: a low-maintenance business that generates significant income. Such a muse is leveraged to finance your ideal lifestyle, which we calculate precisely based on Target Monthly Income (TMI). |
|
|
Can 10 Cent Earplugs Improve York Learning & Memory?
| |
| Distractions interfere with your level of competency
in your career, and cause fade-out for students on
exams. We have a proven solution that is worth a million.
Discover it now. |
|
|
7-Sigma Selling
| |
| Selling a product or service is more than making presentations to prospects.
It's making presentations to the RIGHT prospects at the right time.
It's also about treating prospects right ON time.
"Prompt response to needs and requests" is ranked by prospects only 2nd to pricing. |
|
|
An Organization’s Number One Asset
| |
| The continued progress of an organization depends greatly on the effectiveness with which it develops its greatest asset – it’s employees. |
|
|
Things to Consider Before Choosing an Online Business
| |
| It is easy to avoid questionable home based business schemes by following ONE simple rule ...
A truly legitimate - ethical business will always provide you with full VERIFIABLE information about their true identity and their company right up front. Think about this for just a moment...
|
|
|
How to have successful Home based Business?
| |
| Starting a home based business is not a joke. It takes real hard work and the right mental attitude. Sometimes, even these are not sufficient to manage risks. Above all, you must have the legitimate home based business. |
|
|
Is your Online Business Making This Mistake?
| |
| "Failing to plan is planning to fail", you've heard this before. This is particularly true for businesses and no prizes for guessing; this applies to online business too. If you have decided to do business online and you have no plan, you are doomed to fail. Online business plans must be focused on all business activities which will lead you to your goal, help you to reallocate your resources to optimum use, analyze and make corrections & adjustments to get back on track if you ever deviate from your goals. |
|
|
Quote 85% Less - Close 300% More
| |
| He had a client who, when he met them, closed 4 deals for every 100 quotes they prepared and submitted. Not only that, it took their highly paid engineers anywhere from 1 hour to 1 week to complete those quotes. |
|
|
5 Steps to Coaching Your Salespeople Beyond Happy Ears
| |
| Following are my thoughts about how you, the leader of your salespeople, can help them overcome Happy Ears. Slip into these five roles to help them be more realistic about and more comprehensive with their opportunities. |
|
|
Personal Branding -- What do you bring to the table?"
| |
| People don't often think about themselves as a "brand", though they should. It could mean the difference between being successful or not, whether in business or personal matters. People want to know, "What do you bring to the table?" |
|
|
How To On Twitter: 3 Things No One Will Tell You
| |
| Twitter is amazing and very powerful as a marketing tool. But, when learning how to on Twitter, there are three things you’ll want to know. Twitter takes literally about 15 minutes daily and provides a steady stream of leads for my business. It costs nothing but time. |
|
|
What we Think About Sales Motivation is All Wrong
| |
| The bottom line - for your salespeople - is that everyone is different; everyone is motivated by different things and for those who are clearly motivated by money, and where you have a clear goal and focus for them, their compensation should and must be commission based. When you have people who are motivated more by recognition, awards, competition, time-off, public service, or philanthropy, your compensation program should be flexible enough to compensate them in an appropriate manner too. |
|
|
In Boston, A Smile Will Get You Some Really Cool Artwork: The Smile Project
| |
| What do you get when you mix silly, heartwarming characters on canvas with a request to smile?
Bren Bataclan and the Smile Project.
|
|
|
You Have an 82% Chance of Making a Hiring Mistake When...
| |
| My guest on this week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts was Ken Edmundson. We were talking about hiring when he he said that there is an 82% chance of making a hiring mistake when management does not know how their candidate is wired. He said it's a mistake when they are fired, they quit, or they under achieve. He went on to say that you can't hire without an interview and a background check and you can't hire by only doing those two things. He named 4 things that cause these mistakes: |
|
|
Sales Prospecting on Steroids
| |
| With all of the articles written about sales and cold calls being dead (I usually write the counter arguments to that. How would you find new business if the only thing you could rely on was a lead?) it was a breath of fresh air when Michael Strickland, my guest on this week's edition of Meet the Sales Experts, spoke about prospecting on steroids. His five tips for sales success in today's economy are: |
|
|
Latest Fiction for the Sales Force - No More Hunters/Farmers
| |
| In 2007 we had to deal with writers proclaiming that sales and the sales force were dead. The reality of all of that talk was that the people writing about it weren't close enough to sales to know what they were talking about. Companies with transactional sales don't need salespeople selling their transactional items, but they do need salespeople persuading companies to choose them in the first place. Then the transactions can be placed via Internet or an inside sales group. That's about the only scenario where the "dead" proclamation even comes close to being accurate. |
|
|
Sales Assessment Comparison - Objective Management Group vs. Devine
| |
| It's not often that we get to compare the assessment results of an individual that took our assessment and another. Why? Because most companies don't use multiple assessments that report on similar findings. Notice that I said "report on" and not "look at". While other assessments report on findings similar to ours, they don't look at or measure the same information to draw their conclusions. That's why the reports I received today make for such an enjoyable comparison. |
|
|
The more you practice the luckier you get!
| |
| By taking control and ownership of your planning and responsibility for forecasting accuracy and opportunity generation you can improve and maintain your consistency of performance. If you are lacking in any of these areas you must take action, it's the key to all success. Do it and do it now - Create your own luck!
|
|
|
Best Keyword Research Training
| |
| Best Keywords give you keys for SEO and drive tons of traffic to your site. |
|
|
7 Habits for Franchisee's
| |
| Owning a franchise doesn't qualify you as a better entrepreneur. What might be the things that provide you with the right foundations to succeed in your business and other businesses in the future? Let me suggest 7 Habits you will find quality franchisee's practicing. |
|
|
How To On Twitter (Day 2) – Finding Followers, Managing DMs, and Automating Followers
| |
| 3 How To On Twitter Steps – Day 2:
(still not tweeting):
1. Repeat Day 1: Find 3 People, sift through 5 pages of their Followers to find people you’d like to Follow, and Follow.
2. Begin using TweetDeck.com for Direct Messages (DMs)
3. Begin using TweetLater.com to automate your Followers message(s).
|
|
|
What Is The Value Of Persistence?
| |
| Persistence is the ability to continue moving forward regardless of your feelings. You push on when you feel like quitting. Persistence is will power and desire combined.
Persistence is steel determination.
Imagine what it would be like if you had the persistence to do, be, have anything you wanted. I am not sure this is possible but you can have fun trying.
|
|
|
Bend the Rules of Business - Use Twitter as Your Marketing Tool (Day 1)
| |
| 3 Things To Do Today To Bend The Rules Of Business:
And, It Doesn’t Include Tweeting:
1. Create Your Twitter Account
2. Personalize / Brand Your Profile
3. Follow and Be Followed.
|
|
|
Overcoming the Dysfunction in Sales Organizations
| |
| These days, many companies have questions about compensation for salespeople and sales leaders and as a result they make a lot of mistakes too. Why would a company want to squash a top producer because he/she is making a lot of money? It happened to Rocky once and he weighed in - with a strong opinion - on the subject. |
|
|
SCORE Through Goal Setting
| |
| It is absolutely essential to become proficient at goal setting and goal achieving if you wish to feel fulfilled and to fulfill your potential as a human being. Goals add excitement and direction in life. Sadly it's said that only 3% of people write their goals down and less than 1% actually review, update and rewrite their goals. The very act of writing down a goal is so powerful. Thinking about a goal isn’t enough; it must be written. Most people don't set goals because they are afraid they might fail. Goal setting gives you a target to aim towards and develops self-discipline. Let me share with you five keys that will help you do that. Each of these keys starts with one of the letters in the word "SCORE". You will come across obstacles in the pursuit of your goal. These are bigger opportunities to grow. |
|
|
Info Products Made Easy--Stand Out from the Start
| |
| Investing a little time upfront to strategically map out your ebook or info product will go a long way toward making sure you end up with a bestseller...here's some ideas for how to do that.
|
|
|
Marketing and Sales Approaches - Hunting vs. Fishing.
| |
| A brief visual comparing two very different approaches to sales and marketing. |
|
|
Chinese Salespeople May be the Next Group to Outsell Your Salespeople
| |
| What are you going to do when, not only are you out priced, out sourced, out willed, out shipped, and out produced, but also out sold - by the Chinese?
That is the question posed by my Kurlan & Associates colleague, Frank Belzer, who is blogging from Shanghai, where he is spending the week training Asian companies in the art of sales management. |
|
|
Team Dysfunction? Perhaps, the Prescription is a PEP Pill!
| |
| If as a Team Manager or Human Resource Director, you find yourself shaking your head and saying "Why can't they all just get along?" Your Team might just need to take the PEP Pill! No fear, we're not talking about a "Red Bull Power Drink" for teams, rather a simple but effective employee education program developed by the Now to WOW! Faculty which fosters inter-department understanding, communications and improved customer service performance. |
|
|
One Suprising Key to Selling Value
| |
| Gary Harvey, my guest on this week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts, has great advice for companies that are trying to avoid getting sucked into having the lowest price. His secret? Purchasing Agents have always told salespeople that they go with the lowest price. When he asks them why they do this, they always tell him the same thing. "Because it works on every other salesperson until we met you." |
|
|
Public Speaking Simplified
| |
| I would guess that the only thing that is more common than an under performing sales force is the discomfort that people have before they speak. And I'm not even talking about speaking in front of an audience. This discomfort can even manifest when presenting to one intimidating individual!
|
|
|
Just How Important is Preparation to Sales?
| |
| Jim believes that you must know everything there is to possibly know about a potential customer or client, perhaps even more than they know about themselves. My theory for preparation revolves more around a salesperson's ability to be strategically and tactically prepared for every imaginable scenario that could occur in a sales meeting and cycle. Both of our approaches depend on the salesperson being prepared to ask good, tough, timely questions. If your salespeople combine those two approaches, they would be unbeatable. |
|
|
How to Be Memorable - Things to Do When You are Selling Yourself
| |
| What was the most memorable thing you ever did or someone ever did to you to stand out and/or get attention? |
|
|
Hit More Fairways and Close More Sales
| |
| Eric Dunn, my guest on this week's Meet the Sales Experts Radio Show, stressed the importance of positive self talk, affirmations, and transformation as keys to sales success.
That Eric is a former golf teacher, his philosophy should not surprise anyone familiar with the mental aspect of golf. And during the interview it became clear that Eric knows a thing or two about my sport, baseball, too. Eric talked about the similarities between golf and selling and at one time he even sold golf equipment. |
|
|
Avoid Mistakes, Take Action, Overcome Resistance
| |
| Works great in sales too. Your salespeople would have more success changing the minds of their prospects if they weren't so busy denying them of their opinions, trying to push facts and features, benefits and value propositions, and proof and examples down their throats. |
|
|
Recap of four part series on successful goal setting.
| |
| This is recap day for the 4 day series on goal setting. I have used these techniques to get what I want and I used them to find the perfect online home business for me.
Give careful thought to your goal. How bad do you want this?
Know exactly what you want the end result to be.
Write your goal down and engage your senses.
Brain storm any problems that can come up and get them covered.
Have a definite time frame.
By all means have a detail plan of action.
Visualize and enjoy putting the effort into getting what you want.
If you are fed up with life just happening to you. Take control.
|
|
|
Count your links
| |
| Have you ever thought of why we are not recommended to link to a website page that is having more than 100 links? Yes, Google recommends that we need to keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number and fewer than 100 is optimum. Recently Matt Cutts from Google was talking about the same. Why Google gave provide that recommendation and what happens if you don’t mind it. |
|
|
Choosing the right keyword for your website
| |
| If your website is having a high ranking keyword that no one is searching for, the traffic curve will approach zero. This doesn’t give you any conversion and you can not be proud of your website seeing its search ranking. It is very important to find high search volume keywords and optimize your website for that keyphrase. You can compare the relative popularity of any keyword using tools that are available in the internet. |
|
|
Good news sales stories
| |
| You don't have to discount price to win good business and good customer relationships even in tough markets.
I mentioned earlier this year my team and I are working on a large sales fitness training assignment in the finance sector around Australia. These guys are hard up against it when it come to ‘price' being a key target at the moment. A number of their competitors are trying to buy market share with discounted prices. The market is being hammered with ‘discounting' of all sorts - some clear, some not so clear and some very dubious. |
|
|
The Big Mistakes in Goal Setting
| |
| The way most of us were taught to set goals could very well be the set up for disappointment. We've always been told in business seminars to write S.M.A.R.T goals. There are different versions of the acronym below but mostly you'll see it like this:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Risky, Realistic or Relevant (depending on who's teaching)
Timely
To all of the above I say...rubbish! |
|
|
Health Benefits for Dependent Children
| |
| Michelle's Law extends eligibility for group health benefit plan coverage to certain dependent children over the age of 18 who are enrolled in an institution of higher education. |
|
|
10 Steps To Unleash Your Lead PR Machine
| |
| PR (public/media relations) is a powerful small business-marketing tool. By PR, we mean getting positive press mentions about your firm in local, trade and national publications.
These mentions are so powerful because they are seen to come from unbiased third parties, so they are more believable. People may think ad messages are just sales hype, but when they read about how great you are in the local business journal…well, it must be true!
|
|
|
How to Predict Behavior Like Abraham Lincoln Did
| |
| Behavior can be predicted in terms of a person's interests, group identity, character, and unconscious needs. If you want to predict behavior, do what Lincoln did...
|
|
|
Three Things That Kill CRM (...and how to counter them)
| |
| According to the best research I can find, roughly 2/3 of CRM implementations fail. How can this be? After so many years why haven't sales leaders and CRM vendors figured this out? |
|
|
Competency Based Interviewing
| |
| An article that explains the benefits of Competency Based Interviewing |
|
|
A Cunning Cost Cutting System for the Busy Business Owner
| |
| Smart small business owners are finding ways of cost cutting in their businesses. You don’t have to be struggling to think cost cutting is a good idea in this recession. If you want to thrive not just survive, here’s a system for cutting costs with just a little time. |
|
|
Niche Marketing - The Basics
| |
| A short introduction to the world of online niche marketing and what skills are needed in this arena to ensure success. |
|
|
Tips For Starting A Profitable Online Business
| |
| If you are a single parent and you find working two jobs close to impossible, then you definitely need to read up on profitable online business start-up ideas as a way to work at home and earn a second income. |
|
|
Ma$$ive Prosperity
| |
| What's the best way to attract massive prosperity? If you knew, you'd already be doing it right? I'm going to suggest that most people have the formula right under their nose and don't even know it. |
|
|
5 Ways To Find Affiliate Programs That Match Your Home Business
| |
| Affiliate program commissions can mean the difference between your business either sinking or swimming. For one thing, there is no limit to the money you can gain from using affiliate programs. Best of all, establishing an affiliate marketing business is extremely simple and costs little to no money. |
|
|
Sales are Probably Down if You Are Doing These Three Things...
| |
| "When your market isn't growing, it is not business as usual and holding your breath and hoping is not the right strategy." This according to Casey Coffman, my guest on... |
|
|
How to Find More Sales Opportuntities without Cold Calling
| |
| The two biggest problems for most companies right now, in this economy, are delayed closings and not enough new opportunities. I've tackled delayed closings, so today, with a little help from my friends, I'll tackle not enough new opportunities. I mentioned in my last post that (most of) you need three times more opportunities than ever before to make up for the late stage opportunities that aren't closing right now. |
|
|
2009 Cold Calling Checklist
| |
| If we listen to the media, 2009 is shaping up to be a tough year. People are losing jobs and homes and businesses are struggling. A tough economy, however, does not mean that no one will ever buy anything or that no business at all will be done in 2009. What it does mean is that business owners and sales professionals will need to adjust tactics to survive: They will need to become more proactive and more efficient at finding new opportunities. |
|
|
Rules of Sales Engagement for the Recession
| |
| We also discussed the economy - of course - and right now, there are some new rules of engagement. You simply have to work three times harder, three times smarter, find three times more opportunities and be three times more effective just to sell what you used to sell. That's it? No. In order to be three times more effective you must refine your strategies and expand upon your tactics. You must be more creative, quicker on your feet, more resourceful and more persuasive. You must ask better questions and more of them. You must be more powerful than ever before. Do that and you will survive. Do that consistently and you will thrive when the economy turns around and money loosens up. In the mean time, no short cuts! |
|
|
How to Hold The Sales Team Accountable Under the New Rules of Sales Engagement
| |
| If you read yesterday's post, there was a comment from Teicko who asked how you can hold the sales team accountable under these new rules of sales engagement where you must work three times harder, three times longer, be three times more effective and have three times more opportunities in the pipeline to get the same results as you used to. |
|
|
Writing Tip: Follow basic email etiquette for greater productivity
| |
| Poorly written emails today suffer the same consequences as poorly written memos and letters of earlier times. So, when writing emails to your colleagues and clients, remember to create a professional image by following these simple guidelines. As you do, you will help others meet important deadlines and keep projects on target. |
|
|
Get Out of the Way and 8 Tips for Sales Success
| |
| This was a very interesting, fast-moving show where Chris shared his 8 tips for sales success, talked about sales management's role in growing sales, the biggest obstacle he had to overcome in order to succeed, how to succeed in this economy, and much, much more. One of his 8 tips? Get out of the way! |
|
|
Put on Your Helmet - 3 Tips for Selling in this Economy
| |
| What a great interview I had with Bill Murray, Founder and CEO of Winning Incorporated, Friday on my Meet the Sales Experts Radio Show! He was awesome.
Here are some of the highlights from my conversation with Bill: |
|
|
If It Doesn’t Hurt, I Must Be Doing It Wrong
| |
| Are your prospects hanging up on you? Saying they’re “not interested,” they “have a vendor” or “send me some information we’ll call if we need you?” Does prospecting hurt? |
|
|
Take the bite out of cold calling with these helpful strategies.
| |
| Few things strike fear into the heart of an entrepreneur than cold calling. But these cold calling strategies will help make the entire process more successful and enjoyable.
|
|
|
Disruption Breeds Opportunity
| |
| Between 1831 and 1840 there were 14 Americans born who each went on to amass billions of dollars in wealth. Some of their names were Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan. They came from all walks of life but had one thing in common. Read the full article to find out what it was. |
|
|
Marketing Secrets Of A Mail Order Maverick
| |
| This is my third review of a Joseph Sugarman book (previous reviewed: Triggers: 30 Sales Tools You Can Use To Control The Mind… and Television Secrets for Marketing Success). |
|
|
Hire the Best Salespeople on the Planet
| |
| Several months ago Objective Management Group began to identify hirable candidates that are ideal - they will ramp-up more quickly than a normal hirable candidate. A normal candidate should ramp up according to this formula I devised many years ago:
Normal Ramp Up = Length of Sales Cycle + Length of Learning Curve + 30 Days. |
|
|
Is Your Networking Not Working?
| |
| Learn the 5 principles for effective networking that builds business and drives revenues. |
|
|
Why Corporate Sales Training Often Fails to Deliver Results
| |
| Why do you train salespeople and sales managers?
Some companies want to educate them and improve their skills. Some feel obligated to provide training while others provide training to improve results. Some do it to help their salespeople, improve morale and feel good about making it available. These are all very nobel concepts, but usually achieve disappointing outcomes. |
|
|
Are Balanced Funds Really Balanced?
| |
| After the stock market crash of the late 90’s many experts called balanced funds the saviors of retirement planning and the 401k world. Although they have a lot of strong qualities and their internal strategy is ideal for a goal oriented portfolio, they are not the saviors of the retirement plans in the world!
|
|
|
Dell Resorts to Questionable Sales Tactics to Drive Revenue
| |
| Today, I received an email from Dell showcasing their latest ill conceived scheme to generate revenue. I really have to question their thinking because when you see it you'll start thinking about all of those Yellow Page advertisers that send confirmations for ads you didn't place... |
|
|
What Comes First? Ready..Aim..Fire?
| |
| No doubt the phrase “ready..aim..fire” has been drummed into your head as the right way to do things. But is it really? |
|
|
Differentiating Pricing Strategy From Selling Strategy
| |
| Let's differentiate between this very sound pricing strategy yet unsound selling strategy. From a pricing perspective, this strategy allows you to effectively position your company, brand, products and services wherever you need them to be, based on markets, competition, reputation, quality and business strategy.
However, from a selling perspective, never provide your prospect with even two, let alone three options. It's difficult enough to close business in a timely manner today and you certainly don't want to be the cause of a decision making delay. |
|
|
Finding The Part Time Home Business Of Your Dreams
| |
| A part time home business can accomplish two goals that many people have. It can add funds to their bank account and help to fulfill a dream of doing something they love. Working from home has many benefits, including being able to work when you have time, being able to attend family functions and not having to keep up with the rat race. |
|
|
Five Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips and Tricks
| |
| Discover 5 of the Most Effective Tips and Tricks for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Meta Keywords, Google Submissions, Over-Optimization and Link Sources.
|
|
|
Why Do You Want More Money?
| |
| Really, why do you?
And how much?
A great majority of people don’t seem to have the answers to these questions. And if you can’t answer these questions, then don’t expect to earn more money. Why? Because your “why†and your “what†will always drive the how.
I think a lot of people get consumed with how their going to earn more money; and since they don’t see a way - they never bother to go out and do it; or what’s worse is that they know exactly how to earn more money, but they don’t take action due to a lack of inspiration or emotional power.
Now here’s the kicker: the how is always the last part to show up.
|
|
|
Recession-Proof your Career (Part I of II)
| |
| Have you taken the necessary steps to recession-proof your career in today's job market? |
|
|
Top 10 Tips for "Team Building" Success
| |
| The Apprentice television show revolves around the premise that a stable of young talent is trying to get a job with Donald Trump. In their endeavors they are challenged with weekly assignments. Be a leader. Sell product. Manage people. Ultimately, their goal is to win. But along the way the most successful candidates also learn something else. And that is without a team, your personal success is limited at best. |
|
|
Identifying Your Websites Target Audience
| |
| Many times, websites are created without any thought given to exactly who the website is for and how (or even if) the website reached the intended audience. Knowing your audience may just be the most important consideration in website design and search engine optimization. |
|
|
How Not To Network
| |
| Networking is a learned skill. It may not come naturally to some people. It requires that you understand human nature, a skill that is woefully neglected in this world of fast friends and instant communication. |
|
|
Target Marketing Lesson from My Teenage Daughter
| |
| It’s so important to target your marketing toward the specific group of people who might buy from you, rather than too broad a group of people. How do you do this? |
|
|
Three Vital Direct Mail Tips for the Small Business Owner
| |
| Direct mail can be a very profitable marketing channel for the small business owner. This article outlines three tips for ensuring your direct mail success. |
|
|
8 Steps to Reach Your Sales Goals
| |
| The end of one year and beginning of a new one is a great opportunity to examine your successes from the previous year, determine what you want to replicate, what you want to change and then set some goals for the new one.
Because setting attainable sales goals can be a lot trickier, and more stressful, then people tend to think, I'd like to offer a step-by-step guide to help you set and reach your yearly target.
|
|
|
Career Survival Tactics
| |
| You only have to open the daily paper to hear about the latest trends of downsizing, rightsizing, or latest wave of terminations a desperate attempt to recession proof businesses. Companies big and small are not immune, employees old or new are at risk, so the question is how can you increase your chances of staying in your job or landing the next position when layoffs and redundancy becomes inevitable? How can you manage your career so this doesn’t happen to you? |
|
|
Promotional Products – show your customer appreciation continually for best effect !
| |
| Continuity is the key to realizing your marketing endeavors. The more the number of times your marketing message or campaign appears in front of your target, the better is the retention and recall of your product and company. A persistent approach can help businesses to accomplish their goals of boosting sales, gaining customer loyalty and overall building a good reputation for themselves. |
|
|
Nine Reasons to Use Promotional Products
| |
| There are infinite reasons to believe as to why promotional products are distributed. The sheer word of promotional gift provides a good and rare feeling among the clients/customers receiving the same. People feel on top of the world while receiving a “free” gift. The clients curiously look at the brand name as to who is distributing the free gift and inform their family and colleagues. Apart from brand recognition companies can do a lot more with the promotional products. Here are top 9 reasons to use promotional products to give your company name and fame:
1)Apart from enhancing the image of the company promotional products also builds the clients goodwill and is most often distributed among company’s valued clients and customers as a goodwill gesture. |
|
|
Seven Public Relations Secrets that Get Your Business Noticed
| |
| In the article, "Seven Public Relations Secrets that Get Your Business Noticed," Pam Lontos pinpoints the most effective publicity tools to increase visibility and sell more products and services. |
|
|
Think and Manage Like a Winner; Defense is a Losing Strategy
| |
| Recessions over the past 64 years averaged 10 months from peak to trough. This one is 15 months old and there is no bottom in sight. Most employers are cutting "non-essential" expenses to preserve employee jobs. While compassionate, that is a death-knell for most businesses. So what's a business owner to do? |
|
|
Diversions, Distractions, and Drama
| |
| If the name of the game is 'Life', then 'uncertainty' is how it's played. All the other illusions are merely debilitating distractions along the way. |
|
|
6 Traits of GenY Consumers and How You Can Market To Them
| |
| GenY (ages 18-30) represents an amazing portion of the money spent in America. How can your business capture some of those dollars?
|
|
|
Revealed: the Ultimate Lead Generation Tool
| |
| There is one lead generation strategy that out performs all others exponentially. This strategy is so powerful that when applied in a systematic fashion, to an existing business, it will more than double your profit. Even more appealing, it entails practically no additional marketing expenditure. The most amazing fact however about this method, is that less than 1 in 10 companies have implemented a formal approach to this powerful profit boosting tactic. |
|
|
How effective is your Advertising?
| |
| Have you ever heard of Guerrilla Marketing? It’s an effective way of marketing execution for mostly small businesses but its techniques can be applied in huge corporations as well.
|
|
|
DOCTORING UP THEIR IMAGE: WHY ARE SO MANY PHYSICIANS IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THEIR PRACTICES?
| |
| As recently as a decade ago, most physicians who had achieved a certain level of peer and patient recognition were loath to advertise their practices until HMO’s began to dictate patient care and reimbursement. Soon after, sub-specialists such as gynecologists and internists were performing lucrative elective procedures that were once the sole domain of plastic surgeons and dermatologists. Enter public relations. |
|
|
Make the best out of your Giveaways #K4
| |
| Giveaways are staple enticement products or rewards offered to targeted clients at trade shows, consumer shows, within business organizations and the retail environment. They can be referred to as “advertising specialties” which are meant to lure people to take notice and become future business opportunity. These can also be in the form of incentives and premiums given to employees or clients to motivate and compensate them for their efforts and contribution to the business. Considering the significant role that these giveaways are expected to play, it is imperative to create appropriate and effective items which carry value and message for the targeted customer. One needs to keep the final objective of the giveaway in mind, to come up with a most creative ideas and concepts to hit the nail’s head |
|
|
People with Goals and Dreams
| |
| People with dreams and goals succeed because of one primary reason: They know where they're going. In any game, you must determine what winning means to you -- you gotta define success and you also have to determine what it will take to win. |
|
|
Is Your Weapon of Choice an Elephant Gun or a Fly Swatter to Increase Sales?
| |
| Sales professionals are very much like hunters in that they are seeking a quarry (customer). By bringing down their victim, they receive a prize that being a sale. In many cases these salespeople select the wrong weapon because their focus is not prey, but on the prize. |
|
|
Types of Shoplifters
| |
| Retail operations offer many challenges for dedicated managers and owners who work hard & are committed. But the most difficult part of his/her role is the loss prevention function. Many retail owners and managers are not equipped or trained to deal adequately with developing an effective loss prevention program, or in preventing external and internal losses in the complex Retail settings. |
|
|
Strategic Selling
| |
| All of us preach the basics of selling and encourage all sales people to go “Back to the Basics” of building value in yourself and your product. That’s a given particularly in today’s competitive environment. Much time and effort is invested in training your sales force on product knowledge, features, benefits, and closing tools. Little time is invested in training on the “Strategy of Selling”. This is what I am referring to.
|
|
|
Home Party Plan Selling Tips How To Increase Home Party Sales Ratios For More Direct Sales Profits
| |
| Need more cash? In my last article, An Open Letter To : Direct Sales Consultant, Direct Selling Business Owners On How To Triple Home Party Sales we laid the foundation for improving direct selling ratios . Today we are going to focus our minds of increasing and improving home party sales ratios. This will lead to more home party sales and direct sales profit! |
|
|
Reduction to the Achievable
| |
| There is the classic sales technique called “reduction to the ridiculous”, whereby the cost of the item being offered for sale (or the premium above a competitor’s offering) is framed in terms of the cost of a daily cup of coffee. If we take the concept (a big thing made up of tiny pieces) and apply it to goal setting and target achievement, then it becomes a useful tool when undertaking an ambitious objective - "Reduction to the Achievable" |
|
|
Havens From Hypocrisy
| |
| Many wonder why the late British actor, author, and raconteur David Niven was never knighted. After all, many show business people of far less distinction got their “Ks” – indeed, these days it seems every so-called “celebrity” gets one if he lives long enough. |
|
|
Home Business Expert: Importance Of Consistency & Persistence
| |
| The only way you fail is if you give up. Don't quit! |
|
|
Home Business Expert: How To Set Your Goal – Short, Mid And Long
| |
| Learning how to set your goal - short, mid and long has many advantages. The principal tool for motivation in any home business is goal setting, without which the whole thing may go haywire. |
|
|
Home Business Expert: Importance Of Blogging
| |
| The first thing to learn about a home-business is the importance of blogging because blogs can really help you. In fact, the importance of blogging is being recognized globally nowadays. |
|
|
Home Business Expert: How To Advertise In Print Media
| |
| Like any other business venture, how to advertise in print media is also a significant issue even in your home based business. |
|
|
Repent! The End is Near! (3)
| |
| 'Begin with the end in sight,' writes Stephen Covey. As the year ends, now's a really good time to think about your end: who would you like to be then? |
|
|
Entrepreneurs – Feeling a Little Jaded and Want to Fire up Your Enthusiasm Again?
| |
| It’s been a hard year and it doesn’t look as if it going to get any better for businesses. What with the recession and the problems in finding loans and liquidity problems – it’s just getting harder to keep up your enthusiasm with the hard work that is running your own business. Here are a few ideas to get you – and your business fired up again. |
|
|
Five Tips to Set and Achieve Your Writing Goals
| |
| If you want to write a book, or tackle any other important writing project, then setting clear, powerful goals can put you on the path to success. No matter what you hope to accomplish, the following five tips can help you get there.
|
|
|
Entrepreneurs, Thinking Of Starting A New Business – Making That Leap From Your Comfort Zone
| |
| To many people, starting their own business is a dream – so how do you move from your dream to reality? Making the move from your regular job with the regular income is a big step. Have you really thought this through? Do you really understand all the changes that you will need to make? Let’s examine how to make the journey as safe and quick as possible. |
|
|
Got a great business idea and not sure when to make the leap from that nice safe job to your new business?
| |
| That leap from being paid by others to relying on your own business for an income is a frightening one – make sure you are going about it the right way. |
|
|
Avoiding drift...
| |
| Often in planning for our businesses, we set up performance metrics that are tied to ANNUAL goals. |
|
|
Are your goals in writing?
| |
| The most PRODUCTIVE people write down their goals. |
|
|
How to Gain Access to that Executive You Simply Must See
| |
| To get in the door in new accounts at the executive level, you must first establish your value with the executive. There in lies the challenge. |
|
|
I Dare You
| |
| I never have been able to understand why people can only see as far as the need of the day in which they are operating. It astounds me even more how these same people can be motivated at all. On a day-to-day basis, the job of running a business, selling, and hanging on to your clients can be tough.
|
|
|
Buying damaged goods How to evaluate a distressed companys potential
| |
| Thorough due diligence and a professional valuation can help reveal whether a distressed company is a diamond in the rough or fatally flawed. This article provides tips on spotting imminent trouble, including debt reduction programs and cost-cutting tactics. It also helps buyers evaluate an acquisition’s hidden opportunities, by weighing its market position, demographic trends, revenue growth, cash reserves and industry conditions. |
|
|
Setting goals - ten steps to success
| |
| We all know that success begins with setting measurable and carefully considered goals. But setting goals is not enough - you need to devise several roadmaps to reaching those goals, and then follow through. Whether your goals are small or big, following these ten steps will help you on your way. |
|
|
Statistics, Setbacks and Self-Esteem
| |
| When, during the midlife transition, it seems as though the universe has it in for you, you're not imagining it. Statistics support your feelings. |
|
|
Building your opt-in mailing list is cheaper than in sending direct mails.
| |
| Printing, envelopes and paper used as material further add up to the cost.
Here are some ways to effectively start your opt-in mailing list:
|
|
|
Solving the Problem of Increase Sales
| |
| Some salespeople are highly motivated by hitting targets and achieving goals. If this is you, you relish winning awards and gaining recognition. Even though most people think all salespeople are driven by the motivation to get to a future goal it simply isn’t the case. |
|
|
Is Online Advertising Cost Effective?
| |
| If you are planning on advertising a business, there are a variety of different methods of advertising that you can consider. You can consider advertising offline through magazine ads, billboards, radio ads, and more. However, many people today are choosing to go with online advertising. |
|
|
Don't Confuse Me with the Facts!
| |
| You can't 'fix' the midlife transition, even by 'fixing' yourself. It takes a depth of understanding, appreciation, and awareness. |
|
|
Setting Goals that Leverage Sales Success
| |
| One of the single, most important skills that a salesperson can possess is to set goals that are so well defined, and so compelling, that they become embedded deep into the unconscious mind, consequently acting as a powerful force that drives motivation and behaviour. If your sales team lacks clarity about why they are doing the job that they do, their sense of purpose will become diluted and as their sales manager you are losing out on a massive piece of their potential. |
|
|
Focus on Revenue
| |
| The first item on the list was "Focus on revenue, not the economy". You'll get what you pay attention to. If you pay attention to how bad things might become, you'll get lots of bad results. If you pay attention to how well you must do, you'll get good results. |
|
|
How to make vibrant organization based on performance appraisal system
| |
| The essential elements of effectiveness in the system is brought through making measurement indicators through out the organization. In the present era of global competition and recessionary global trend the need of time is to bring efficient and effective work culture.In this article objectives of performance appraisal system,appraisal methods,guidelines for effective appraisal interview etc. is given.It also give summary for Identify, review and improve development activities for individuals.The Difference between job evaluation and performance appraisal is given as summary. Also detail methodology for employee evaluation is given. |
|
|
Sales Training For Service Businesses - Why Should I Use You? - Part 1 of 3
| |
| It's not always about sales training. The most common mistake I see with Services marketing is the 'it's all about me syndrome'. All of a company's letters, web site, and networking interactions are all about the company and what you can do. |
|
|
Tricks of the Trade Show
| |
| 18 "tricks of the trade show" to help you capitalize on the best sales contact opportunity and the most fun time that a salesperson can have in growing their business.
|
|
|
RETAIL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MODEL RCSM
| |
| How to maximize the retail sales? How to add new customers? What’s the reason for successful retailers? Read further to know a simple tool that helps you
|
|
|
Marketing with Ezines - What REALLY Works?
| |
| "New improved ezine marketing method," you've probably seen an ad saying something to that effect at one point or another. Or heard a self proclaimed guru stating "I've found it, I've found the secret to ezine marketing and for $97 you can have it too." |
|
|
Garber on Business: Pier 1 and The Almighty 'Price-point'
| |
| Consumers are ever more mindful of 'Price-point' -- especially during times of economic downturn. Savvy retailers will wise up to this fact of life. (And those who don't will be left behind.) |
|
|
53 Ways to Use Testimonials
| |
| Unsure how to use rave reviews in your business? Here are 53 ideas every business can implement to help your customers sell for you! |
|
|
The Latest Email Scam Is Nothing New
| |
| The eBay scam is just the latest in a long line of sophisticated attempts to steal personal information through online means. Customers of PayPal, | |